A successful North Carolina trial lawyer, John Edwards was elected the state's freshman U.S. senator in 1998 and made Democratic nominee Al Gore's short list of vice presidential picks in 2000. He became Sen. John Kerry's chief rival after winning the South Carolina primary but withdrew from the race on March 3, 2004, a day after failing to win one race in the Super Tuesday primaries.

Total Delegates shows CNN's total current delegate count for each candidate
and may include delegates not accounted for in the summation of the current
delegate counts listed above by state. Visit the Delegate
Scorecard for a complete look at the delegate count. For more about the
current and intial delegate counts as well as the delegate selection
process, click
here. Instead of releasing caucus vote totals, the Iowa and Idaho Democratic Parties release a total indicating the number of delegates to the state convention each candidate will receive.
 How does CNN project winners in races? Click here.
 Exit polls are a survey of selected voters taken soon after they leave their voting place. Pollsters use this sample information, collected from a small percentage of voters, to track and project how all voters or specific segments of the voters sided on a particular race or ballot measure. For more on how to read exit polls, click here.